Two-light wall bracket

Antoine-André Ravrio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This crowned and bearded mask of an old man bears the inventory number of the Palais des Tuileries. One of a pair, this wall sconce was, according to the 1833 inventory, in the pavillon de la Conciergerie in the apartment of Emmanuel-Louis-Nicolas Viollet-Le-Duc, keeper of the palace and father of the famous architect Eugène Emmanuel. An elongated ornament pendent from the palmette motif between the two branches is missing. This ornament is still present on a similar wall light, one of a pair that was supplied in 1808 to the château de Fontainebleau by bronze caster and chaser Ravrio who was most likely also responsible for the Museum’s wall sconce. Ravrio worked for the French court before the Revolution and later for Napoleon.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art